


Oh, I'm Better For the Smile You Give

by ArizonaToToronto (BlaqkAudio)



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Anal Sex, Auston learns to talk about his feelings, Brownie is the voice of reason, Communication, Fluff, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, M/M, Pining, and Mama Matthews too, bottom!Auston, self conscious Auston, sort of slow burn?, very light angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 15:00:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14621133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlaqkAudio/pseuds/ArizonaToToronto
Summary: "Look," Brownie tells him, "I know it's totally not my business but like, are you– Are you ever planning on getting your shit together with Marns?"Auston blinks. He opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out, so he shuts it again dumbly.The thing is– the thing is it's all so complicated.





	Oh, I'm Better For the Smile You Give

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Click away if you know any of these people in real life. Don't be weird.
> 
>  
> 
> I've had this story sitting in my notes for a while, and I needed some feel-good softness in my life, and thought some of you might, too.

_"With the dark,  
oh, I see so very clearly now.  
All my fears are drifting by me so slowly now,  
fading away._

_I can say  
the night is long, but you are here,  
close at hand.  
Oh, I'm better for the smile you give."_

 

It's finally officially warm enough to be considered spring in Toronto. 

The hockey season's been over for a few weeks now, for the Leafs, anyway, and Auston honestly hasn't done much of anything at all since then. 

He supposes he could've gone to Worlds, could've played hockey through May, but he hadn't been lying when he'd told the media that he's looking forward to taking time off for recovery. 

And no matter what his mom seems to think, relaxing with the guys, hanging around in Toronto, it all totally counts as recovery. 

There've been beers on patios (with the guys, and of course with Mitch), a few barbeques (at Matt and Sydney's, with Mitch), some birthday dinners (for Mitch), and a lot of Fortnite (yeah, with Mitch). 

That really about sums up Auston's offseason so far: Mitch, Mitch, and more Mitch. 

His mom calls him almost every day now, asking if he's booked his ticket home yet. And the thing is... Well. Until today, he hadn't. 

Auston's painfully aware that he's stalling. He knows he should be back in Arizona already, settled into his old room and hanging out with his sisters, golfing with his dad and helping his mom around the house. But he's not. And he knows why he's not. 

He's pretty sure his mom knows why he's not, too.

"Auston," she says, sighing down the phone at him and sounding supremely disappointed. "What you're doing right now? It's not fair. To you, or to him."

"Mom, I–"

"You have to make a decision, Papi. And then you should really come home."

So he buries the feelings down, monopolizes as much of Mitch's time as he can possibly get away with, and doesn't bother trying to rationalize it to himself let alone anyone else. He books his flight for a few days later, and acknowledges that it's because he's chickening out _again_. He tells his mom the ETA, hoping it will satisfy the disappointment somehow. By the sounds of her voice, it doesn't. 

(It's both a blessing and a curse how much Ema Matthews adores Mitch Marner. Auston is only twenty and he's already exhausted of having conversations about settling down. 

"If you're not going to commit to him, Auston, you really need to stop treating him like he's your boyfriend," she tells him. And she's right. It makes Auston feel pretty awful, too.

His mom is incredibly persistent, and just... really, really likes Mitch a lot. Her advice can hurt to hear sometimes, but Auston knows he needs the dose of reality, no matter how hard it is to swallow.)

 

+

 

Auston has a few of the guys over for movies and beer as a final goodbye before he's gone until probably training camp.

It's getting late, and most of the team has headed home. The last two standing are Brownie and Mitch (always, always Mitch), the latter of whom is fast asleep on Auston's couch, so he doesn't really count.

They're several movies into a marathon, and Auston's coffee table bears the evidence. It's completely covered in empty beer bottles, chocolate bar wrappers, and bowls of chip crumbs. The pizza boxes never made it past the kitchen, all four pies destroyed immediately upon arrival. 

It's been a fun night, a good send-off. Auston is happy, for the most part. And getting pretty tired himself, if he's honest. 

He's tired enough that he lets himself lose the thread of the movie in favour of watching Mitch sleep. He's knocked out against the armrest of the couch, his legs stretched out across Auston's lap, and he looks so peaceful, quiet and still for once, the way he never is when he's awake. Auston itches to reach over and run his fingers through Mitch's hair, smooth it back from his forehead. It twinges like a physical ache, the need to touch him churning in his gut, and it only grows harder to ignore the longer Auston looks at him.

The saddest part is that this is nothing new. The attraction, definitely, but also all the sweet shit, like his instinctual need to make Mitch happy, keep him safe. The fucking godawful pining. For all that love is meant to be soft and tender, it really just feels like hot knives stabbing Auston in the chest. He looks at Mitch sometimes and honest to god struggles to breathe with it. 

And he's pretty sure it isn't just him. 

The two of them have been dancing around this, well, this _something_ between them for months now. He sees it in the way Mitch looks at him (at first, when he thought Auston wasn't looking. Lately, though? It's open and honest like Mitch doesn't care who knows anymore). He hears it in Mitch's voice, feels it in his touch. Nothing about them errs on the side of "just friends" anymore, the lines so blurred that they barely exist now. 

Auston knows that Mitch is waiting, probably for Auston to work through his bullshit and to arrive on Mitch's page. They've sort of almost discussed it once or twice, late, late at night, curled up together in Auston's bed. Half-formed confessions whispered between them as they lay on their sides, feeling fragile. Auston hadn't allowed them to put words to what's been going on, hadn't wanted to make it real, not yet.

Because of hockey. Because of playoffs. Because of Mitch's recent breakup. Because of the distance between them during the offseason. Because, because, because. 

Auston's pretty sure they're working their way toward something huge and significant and inevitable either way, and Mitch seems to recognize that, too, but...

He'd asked Mitch to wait, to please not make Auston call it what it is, not now. And Mitch, as amazing and patient and perfect as he is, had agreed, easy as anything. As if Auston is something worth waiting for. 

 

An explosion on the screen startles Auston back to the present. He blinks hard, realizes he's still staring at Mitch intently, the movie playing forgotten in the background. He hopes he hasn't been on some embarrassing facial journey, all of his emotions on display right where Brownie can see. (Except that he definitely knows he has been.)

When he finally forces his gaze away from Mitch's sleeping face, it's to meet Brownie's curious stare at the other end of the couch. Brownie's got this weird smile on his face, both sad and knowing at the same time, and it puts a sour taste in Auston's mouth. 

"Hey," Brownie says, his voice a soft whisper in the dark living room.

"Hey," Auston says back. He licks his lips, mouth suddenly unbearably dry. 

"Look," Brownie tells him, "I know it's totally not my business but like, are you– Are you ever planning on getting your shit together with Marns?"

Auston blinks. He opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out, so he shuts it again dumbly. 

The thing is– the thing is it's all so complicated. He tells Brownie as much. 

"Well, yeah," Brownie says, "relationships are always complicated. People are complicated. Doesn't mean you should just ignore it."

"We're not ignoring it," Auston insists weakly. "We've, uh. We've talked about it. Me and Marns."

Brownie looks skeptical. He leans forward in his seat, keeps his voice low when he asks, "Okay, and how did that go?"

"It was forever ago. I didn't– I wasn't really ready for it to mean anything, y'know? We decided– I guess we decided to pump the brakes for now."

"Matts, I hate to say this but you guys haven't really put the brakes on anything. You're still just as... As tangled up in each other as you've always been."

And it's true. He'd asked Marns for space, and then fucked it up all on his own by being too weak to actually stay away. When they're not physically together, they're texting and calling and Snapchatting, like any form of distance is completely unfathomable, for either of them. Mitch is completely woven into every aspect of Auston's life, for better or for worse. 

"I don't– I literally don't know how not to be. I told him he doesn't have to wait for me, that he can– I dunno."

"But he has been waiting," Brownie says with a shrug. "And you know it. You know he's stopped hooking up. And so have you."

"That's not– I never asked for that. I would never just expect him to wait around for me. He should– he should be with whoever he wants."

"Yeah, well, I think it's pretty clear what he wants."

Auston sighs. 

"It's not that easy, man. We're– we work together. Is that even fair to the rest of the team?"

"You know you're not being fair to yourself, right? Auston, that's–"

"It's not about what's fair for me. It's about... Fuck, I dunno, the hockey. And the timing, it's always terrible. Mitch was just in a serious relationship for like a year." 

Auston's excuses sound pretty flimsy and pathetic to his own ears. He can only imagine what Brownie is thinking. 

"He broke up with her _because_ of you," Brownie says, somewhat exasperated. It's a burning truth that Auston has tried to ignore completely. 

"That's not– look, you think I don't know that?"

Brownie shuffles himself closer to Auston on the couch, his face straight and serious. He lowers his voice a little more and looks Auston right in the eye. "Listen," he asks, "do you love him?"

Auston doesn't even need to think about that. His answer is an emphatic, "yes."

"And there's no one else?"

"No! God, no."

"So what's the problem here, Matty? What are you waiting for?"

"It's just never– never been the right time."

"You like him, he likes you. You're already co-dependant as fuck and disgustingly inseparable." Auston feels himself flush at that, but it's not exactly an untrue assessment of the situation, so.

"You're basically already dating," Brownie continues, dropping another truth bomb that sort of actually rocks Auston's world. "Dating without the sex. Which is pretty stupid, actually, now that I'm thinking about it."

"Oh my god, shut up." 

"You need to talk to him, dude. All this shit you're worried about, you should give him a chance to tell you how ridiculous you're being."

Auston snorts, unamused, but he feels the beginnings of a smile on his face.

 

The conversation sort of trails off after that. They both decide to tap out of the whole movie marathon thing and call it a night. Brownie heads downstairs to catch his Uber, and Mitch, he'll take his usual spot in Auston's bed. 

(Which Auston refuses to think of as weird. It's just how they are, okay?)

 

+

 

The night before Auston leaves for Arizona, Mitch stays over again so he can drop him off at the airport in the morning.

Auston doesn't think he'll ever get tired of the sight of Mitch in his bed, bathed in the soft glow of the lamplight, beautiful against Auston's dark sheets. He looks so at home, like he belongs right here, like this is where he's meant to be, and Auston absolutely aches for that to be true. 

It's pretty late, the evening eaten up by video games and reruns of The Office. Auston finishes getting ready for bed, packs up his toiletries with the rest of his luggage, and joins Mitch in his bedroom. 

"Ready to sleep?" Auston asks him. At Mitch's nod, he switches off the lamp and crawls into bed next to him. 

They get situated pretty quickly, bodies automatically gravitating closer. Like they always, always do. It feels so domestic and so shamefully familiar. Auston can't ignore the way his mind gets carried away with it in the dark, silent stillness. 

 

 _"You're basically already dating,"_ Brownie had said, and Auston literally cannot stop thinking about that. It's been on his mind all day, every single time he's looked at Mitch. It's brought about a hyper-awareness Auston hasn't experienced before, a lens through which he's now examining every interaction with Mitch, picking it all apart. 

It's been eye-opening, to say the least. Auston is trying very, very hard not to let this whole realization thing become a crisis. 

_"You're basically already dating. Dating without the sex."_

It hits Auston like a punch to the gut: he has Mitch in every way he wants, except the one way he wants him the most. And it's a total fucking cop-out, having his emotional needs more or less satisfied, but forcing Mitch to remain at a "safe" distance to protect boundaries that don't even really exist anymore. 

And what's worse, he's been giving enough of himself to Mitch to keep him around, but not the commitment, not the intimacy that Mitch deserves in a partner. Mitch deserves someone who'll be all in on him, and only him. 

And... Auston could be that person. He wants to be. 

His heart thumps painfully hard in his chest. He closes his eyes and takes a shaky breath, certain Mitch can hear the pounding of his racing pulse. He knows that he's been holding the two of them at the same crossroads for months, that there's a difficult conversation they need to have, either way, and the longer they wait to have it, the worse everything will get. Like it or not, something will eventually have to give. 

It's kind of now or never, really.

 

"Hey, so, listen," he says, his voice a wavering little whisper in the dark. He's really glad he can't make out Mitch's face too well, hopes that means Mitch can't see his own terrified expression. 

"I, uh– you. You know that I'm–" He struggles to get the words out, hates himself for how hard he's making something that should be so fucking simple. It's Mitch, for goodness' sake. Mitch is familiar territory. Mitch is safe. 

Mitch takes Auston's hand gently in his own, but he says nothing, waiting on Auston to finish his thought. Auston takes a deep, shuddery breath and tries again.

"You know how bad I am with– with feelings or whatever," he says with a humourless, self-deprecating laugh. He feels Mitch squeeze his hand, encouraging him to continue. "And like. I'm really fucking sorry that my timing is so bad. I'm– I'm going home tomorrow but I couldn't bear, like... months and months of not knowing where we stand. Not anymore." 

Mitch inhales sharply but he's still so terrifyingly quiet. For once in his life, Auston can't stop talking, fills the awkward silence between them with confessions. Now that he's uncorked this bottle of things he's kept close to his chest for so long, everything bubbles to the top. The longing. The fear. 

He bares himself to Mitch and prays he likes what he sees, enough to stick around. 

"Marns, you have to know by now that I'm totally– I'm crazy about you. And I'm sorry if this is me reading things wrong, or if you got sick of waiting for me to figure things out and stopped like, liking me back, because– because I know I haven't been fair to you. And it would be totally okay if you've... gotten over it. Gotten over me."

"Auston," Mitch says. It sounds like it's taking a great effort for him to keep his voice steady. "You know how I feel about you, how I've– how I've always felt. I just– why now?"

And that's a fair question, one that Auston knows will be hard to articulate an answer to. He tries anyway.

"Because I've just... I've been waiting so long for the right time and it's like... There'll never _be_ a right time, Marns. And I just want so many things that I've been trying to ignore for so long. I thought– it's so stupid but I thought I could control myself around you and I _can't_. I can't do it anymore." 

"What do you– what are you asking for? What do you want, Auston?"

"I want to be with you. Properly. Not this... whatever we've been doing. It's not enough."

"Okay."

"I want to stop being so afraid. I've made so many excuses, to myself, to our friends, to you..."

"But it's us, Matty. It's just you and me, like we've always been. What are you so afraid of?"

That right there is the million dollar question. It makes Auston swallow hard, makes his palms start to sweat. 

"I'm– I guess... I guess I'm just afraid of hurting you?" The quiet admission tastes awful in Auston's mouth, but once it's out there, he can't take it back. 

"Matts–" Mitch starts to protest. He pushes himself into sitting position, squints hard to make out Auston's face in the dark. "You wouldn't. You won't." Auston wants to ask how he can be so sure. How can he possibly know that?

"This is all just really new to me, okay?" Auston swallows hard, again, forces himself to lay down all of his cards despite the anxiousness knotting in his stomach. "You know I haven't really been in a proper relationship before. Not one where I've ever, ever felt like this."

"It's okay, Auston. I've– me either, yeah? I've never felt like this before, about anyone."

"Doesn't that scare you?"

"Shitless!" Mitch admits with a tiny laugh. "But Matts... It's a good fear. It means that it matters."

"I'm just so fucking scared of making things all complicated. You're so important to me, Marns, and I can't lose you. I've been trying so hard not to cross that line, but Mitch– we crossed it forever ago. I don't think I could go back, even if I wanted to..."

"So what does that mean?" 

"It means that I... I realize that I've been stringing you along, making you wait for something I didn't think I was ready to give you. And that's not fair to you, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry it took me so long to figure it out."

"But you're ready now?" Mitch's words are barely anything but breath. He's shaking a little next to Auston, thinly veiled hope making his voice wobble. 

Yeah. Auston is beyond ready.

He reaches for Mitch's hand, brings it to his lips and kisses his palm in the most tender gesture he can think of. 

"I mean it when I say that you're it for me," Auston whispers into the darkness, words pressed intimately into Mitch's palm. "It's always been you, Marns. I'm so fucking in love with you that I don't know what to do with myself."

The silence following his words is broken by an ugly sound, uncontrollable, from deep in Mitch's chest. Auston is startled at first, and then alarmed when he hears Mitch's breath hitch. 

"Mitchy?" He asks urgently, scrambling up to turn on the lamp. 

"I'm– I'm sorry!" Mitch gasps, wiping furiously at his wet eyes. His voice is thick with tears, and he's squinting against the sudden harsh light.

"Are you– is everything–?"

"I'm okay!" He insists, huffing a watery little laugh. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm crying, it's– they're happy tears, Aus, I promise."

Auston feels a little sick at how relieved Mitch looks, his lashes wet and sticking together, the edges of his mouth tilting upward in a disbelieving smile. 

"Wow," Mitch breathes, once he's gotten his breathing back under control. "Part of me feels like I must be dreaming." 

"I'm sorry," Auston blurts. "I really, really should've–"

"No, no!" Mitch insists. He crowds himself into Auston's space, grabs at his hands. "Don't be, don't say that you're sorry. I'm not sorry at all." His voice is so firm, so earnest, that maybe Auston starts to believe him.

"I love you," Auston says again, his voice sweet and low without him even meaning for it to be. Mitch laughs again, like he really still can't believe it. He tilts his head forward to rest against Auston's, closes his eyes before he speaks. 

"I love you, too, Matty."

The words are barely out of his mouth before Auston is claiming his lips in a soft kiss. Mitch absolutely melts into it, arms coming up around Auston's neck. He settles himself comfortably across Auston's lap and lets himself be held, lets Auston gently nudge his head back to deepen their kiss. 

"Mm," Mitch sighs into Auston's mouth. He parts his lips for Auston's tongue. He's running his fingers up and down the back of Auston's neck, and it makes Auston shiver all over with how good it feels. 

They kiss just like that for a long time, slow and almost chaste at first, before Mitch starts wriggling around in Auston's lap. He's mostly getting situated, but it must feel nice because he does it again, rolling his hips into Auston's.

The first brush of their groins together has Mitch breaking the kiss to gasp out loud. When he comes back in for another kiss, it's deeper, dirtier than before. Mitch starts licking into Auston's mouth with obvious intent, and everything speeds up from there. 

Before long, they're both breaking apart to paw at each other's clothing, impatient and breathing hard. Auston gets Mitch all tangled up in his shirt as he tries to tug it off, too eager to get to his bare skin. It feels like they've been working up to this moment for months, and now that it's here, they can't stop. 

Auston can't help but stare once they're both finally naked, hands and eyes exploring skin they've each seen a thousand times in a different context, except this time they can touch. And kiss, and bite, and lick. Auston gets lost for several long moments sucking bruises into Mitch's neck, his chest. The bites make Mitch shudder, make his cock drool wetly where it's pressed up against Auston's thigh. The sight of the bruises, so red and wet, makes Auston moan out loud. 

"Auston, can I–" Mitch asks breathlessly, hands grasping for any part of Auston he can reach. "Please, wanna touch you."

"Yeah, Marns, here, let me–"

Auston is quick to retrieve his lube from the bedside drawer. He holds Mitch's gaze as he passes him the tube and a condom, answering the gentle question in Mitch's eyes by rolling over onto his stomach. 

"Oh," Mitch says, almost too quietly to hear. 

"Is that– is that okay?" Auston asks. He glances back over his shoulder to see Mitch's face, just a little bit concerned at the look of surprise he finds there. 

"Yes!" Mitch immediately says. He clears his throat before continuing in a softer voice, "yes, of course, definitely."

Auston gives him his most reassuring smile and says, "just go slow, yeah? It's been a while."

"Jesus, Matts," Mitch breathes. His hands are shaking just a little when he strokes them down Auston's sides, coming to rest on his hips. "Yeah."

"Yeah?"

"Uhuh. Just never... never thought we'd ever–" Mitch starts to say, before he bites his lip to stop the rest of the sentence from coming out. Auston understands exactly what he means, anyway. 

 

+

 

The prep is fast, when they manage to stop kissing long enough to get around to it, but Mitch is thorough, uses plenty of lube to get his fingers nice and deep inside Auston. 

Auston grows impatient pretty quickly, too keyed up to wait any longer. By the time Mitch has three fingers squeezed up inside, crooking all three to brush against Auston's prostate, Auston is about ready to climb out of his own skin. 

"C'mon," he gasps wetly into his pillow, "I'm good, Marns, you can–"

"Yeah, yeah, Matts," Mitch is breathing into Auston's ear. He withdraws his fingers and Auston shivers as he hears the sound of the condom wrapper tearing. The relief Auston feels when Mitch starts to press inside has a high, embarrassing whine escaping his throat. 

Mitch's dick feels incredible, exactly like Auston knew it would. He goes torturously slowly after the head of his cock breaches Auston, spreads him open. The wet, wet slide has Auston arching his back for it, right away, hungry for more. 

"Oh, f-fuck, Matty," Mitch moans in Auston's ear, still feeding Auston inches of his dick. "Your ass is amazing..." 

He's kneeling on either side of Auston's hips and Auston can feel his legs shaking. Mitch is holding back, giving Auston only shallow little thrusts, which are somehow both not enough and better than Auston could have imagined.

The sound of his voice, so reverant and turned on and _right there_ , has Auston's hips jerking against the bedsheets. He bears down, relaxes himself on Mitch's cock, and takes it deeper.

It feels like forever before Mitch's hips are finally pressed up snug against Auston's ass. He rests there for a few moments, let's Auston angle himself so he can press home as deep as possible. It really has been awhile since Auston has done this, but the stretch is familiar, everything so wet and nice. He loves the way it aches. 

"You feel so good," Auston sighs, squeezing down on Mitch and feeling his cock twitch inside him from it. 

"Can I– can I move?" Mitch asks him, flexing his hips imperceptibly. Auston rocks himself back onto Mitch's dick and nods, already eager for it. Ready for more. 

"Yeah, fuck, please," he moans. Mitch gives him a few more shallow thrusts, barely moving, mostly just a sweet little grind that nails Auston right where it counts. It makes Auston feel like his spine is melting.

"Marns, oh, fuck, you gotta–" and Mitch responds by drawing his hips back properly, dick dragging against Auston's rim until just the flared head is inside. He grips at Auston's waist with sweaty hands, angles his hips just so, and slams back in. It makes Auston moan, loud and throaty, so Mitch does it again, and again. Builds up a rhythm.

"Good?" He asks Auston, like he's maybe not sure. 

"Yeah, yeah," Auston pants. He rocks himself back into Mitch's thrusts, forward to grind into the bedsheets he's already soaked with his precome. Mitch picks up the pace, really getting Auston good now, and Auston whines with every harsh drag over his prostate. Between the friction of the bed and Mitch just fucking going for it, he gets right to that edge pretty quickly.

"Mitch, m'close, gonna–"

"Matty, yeah, c'mon, wanna feel it."

Auston shoves a hand between his hips and the mattress, starts jerking himself off. It doesn't take long before he's spilling over his own fist with a relieved moan of Mitch's name. 

"Jesus, you're so fucking hot," Mitch groans against the back of Auston's neck. He's mostly stopped thrusting, balls deep in Auston's ass and just grinding there, getting himself off to the little "ah, ah" sounds Auston is making as he shakes through his orgasm.

"Oh," Mitch gasps as his whole body tenses and stills, and then he's filling the condom and making the best sound Auston's ever heard in his life.

 

+

 

Afterwards, neither of them appears to want to move ever again, content to lie around in their mess. 

They're holding each other in Auston's bed, sweat cooling on their skin, when Auston tells Mitch about the conversation with Brownie. 

"Brownie said... well, he clued me in to the fact that I was kinda already treating you like my boyfriend."

Mitch smiles at that. He presses a tiny kiss to Auston's shoulder, a silent gesture for him to continue.

"It sorta made me realize that we could be together and nothing would really have to change. It wouldn't– it wouldn't mess up the team or, like, I dunno."

"My mom thought we'd been dating in secret for months," Mitch admits. He's playing idly with Auston's sweaty hair and it feels amazing. "She thinks we're really, really good together."

"My mom, too, actually," Auston tells him, almost shyly. "She really loves you. She's been so angry with me for, like, leading you on or whatever. I mean, I think literally everybody saw it but me."

"It's okay that you're slow sometimes," Mitch teases him. "How we got here doesn't matter. Not really. Just matters that we did."

And it sounds so simple, so _Mitch_. He's always been one to believe that everything will work itself out exactly how it's supposed to. It's the romantic in him. Auston himself is a little more cynical, probably too realistic if he's honest with himself, but he's always glad when Mitch is right. Mitch deserves to be right.

 

"I don't want to leave tomorrow," Auston finds himself admitting, just as they're drifting off to sleep. "I wish– well. It doesn't matter. My mom will be stoked when you come visit us over the summer."

Mitch doesn't reply to that, but he's pretty happy about the invitation to Arizona judging by the sweet kiss he presses to Auston's mouth in lieu of words. 

"Sleep now," he whispers after they pull apart. "We'll talk more about this tomorrow."

"Okay, yeah, that's– yeah. Night, Marns."

"Sweet dreams, Aus."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I really appreciate all of the feedback (comments, kudos, bookmarks, it's all awesome). And all of you who have messaged me on Tumblr with kind words, too. 
> 
>  
> 
> Originally I meant for this to be sweet and quick. The draft title in my notes was just "Cute!" ...
> 
> Buuuut, for some reason, Auston always gets really carried away with all of the feelings he's got hidden under that faux chill exterior of his. Happens every time I write from his POV. 
> 
> I swear there wasn't supposed to be any angst, just Connor Brown being a bro and getting Auston to do some self reflection, but here we are.
> 
>  
> 
> Come join me at arizonatotoronto.tumblr.com :).
> 
>  
> 
> Title and lyrics from "Follow You, Follow Me" by Genesis.


End file.
